ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Del Nido cardioplegia (DC) offers prolonged single-dose myocardial protection in pediatric cardiac surgery. We set out to evaluate the efficacy of DC in adult patients undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHODS: From January 2012 to October 2017, 851 consecutive isolated CABG surgeries were performed by 2 study surgeons at our center with blood cardioplegia (BC, n = 350), used from January 2012 to April 2014, and DC (n = 501), used from May 2014 to October 2017. Propensity matching was used to yield 325 well-matched pairs. Clinical data were extracted from our local Society of Thoracic Surgeons database and mortality data from the Michigan State Social Security Death Index. RESULTS: Single-dose administration was used in 83% (417/501) of patients receiving DC. In propensity-matched groups, postoperative median troponin T levels (0.28 [0.16-0.59] ng/mL vs 0.46 [0.27-0.81] ng/mL; P < .01) were lower for patients receiving DC, and no difference in ejection fraction on postoperative echocardiography was observed (54 ± 12% and 53 ± 13% for BC and DC, respectively; P = .36). Perioperative outcomes were similar except for greater rate of atrial fibrillation (33% vs 23%; P = .01) in the DC group. Subgroup analyses revealed equivalent myocardial protection and clinical outcomes in patients with age ≥75 years, left ventricular ejection fraction ≤35%, left main disease, or Society of Thoracic Surgeons score ≥2.5%. Four-year survival did not differ between patients undergoing BC or DC. CONCLUSIONS: The current study revealed noninferior myocardial protection and clinical outcomes with DC versus BC in both routine and greater-risk patients undergoing isolated CABG. DC demonstrated the feasibility of single-dose administration for isolated CABG surgery. Larger randomized studies are needed to further explore the safety and efficacy of DC in adult cardiac surgery with longer crossclamp times.
